Review by Jake Wolf
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Pavel de la Fuente may be a new name to some on the bass scene, but
his instruments have quickly and deservedly built a name for themselves
and its not hard to see why. Besides his obvious technical
prowess for luthiery, his dedication to the concept of truly building
an instrument around his customer's needs has helped him secure a solid
foothold in the high end custom bass market. One look at his
ever-expanding roster of pro artists (Terrence Palmer, Marcus Miller,
and Abe Laboriel, just to name a few) shows that his instruments are
serious music making tools. I was very impressed by what I saw and
played at NAMM, and was able to talk Pavel into getting me a bass to
review.
The Gibor model I tested was built to spec for a customer, and features
a lovely mid/lightweight mahogany body topped with a stunning piece of
maple burl. The maple/mahogany neck is sturdily bolted to the
body and capped with a gorgeous and amply thick cocobolo
fingerboard. The fingerboard has a 16" radius, which feels a
little flatter than what I'm used to, but nonetheless feels great under
my hands. Nicely crowned and polished frets easily allowed for
low action, and coupled with the slim neck profile, the 35" scale neck
felt fast and sleek. The headstock is also capped with that stunning
burled maple, and is appointed with Pavels' simple and elegant
logo. A hand carved bone nut adds to the overall high quality
vibe of the instrument. Custom Bartolini split humbucker
pickups and an 18v NTMB circuit offer great control over the Gibor's
wide tonal range. Hipshot hardware looks great, and functions
perfectly, as usual. This Gibor sports a thin satin
polyurethane finish which feels protective and solid, and also
showcases the natural beauty of the woods used. A high
gloss finish is available on this model, but I really dug the way the
satin feels and looks.
I was able to take the Gibor to a Latin jazz/flamenco trio gig, a
litmus test for 6 string basses for me, since I have been using my F
bass BN6 exclusively with this band for the last couple years.
The Gibor excelled: its punchy round tone and fluent playability
allowed me to hit the ground running. With a set of D'addario
XL's, and playing through a Mesa M6 and Accugroove tri115, the Gibor
cut nicely with great focus and definition, it had a sweet top end and
full throaty mids. I was impressed by the Gibors ability to stay
tight across the frequency spectrum; my experience with mahogany bodied
basses is that they tend to lose some low end focus in favor of that
characteristic mahogany mid- fatness. The Gibor did have that
fatness, but still retained the articulation and tightness needed to
sit properly in the delicate band mix alongside an amplified flamenco
guitar, (or what I like to call: the soundman's nightmare).
The Bartolini package complimented the Gibors natural sonic tendencies,
sounded dead quiet, and allowed for powerful tone shaping capabilities.
Shimmery high end, huge buttery lows, angular mids, it was all there,
with a few intuitive knob twists. The NTMB circuit ensured that its
entire tonal range was all easily accessed and
manipulated.
There is not much to criticize about the Gibor, in fact, my only
nitpicks are based around the fact that I'm so finicky and would have
spec'd things out a little differently for myself. Pavel
responded like a true custom builder, saying that many of the details
and specs are flexible, and that because he builds basses per order,
almost anything is possible. It is obvious from talking
with Pavel that customer satisfaction is paramount, he is clearly
dedicated to making sure that his customer is going to get the custom
bass of their dreams. Whereas some builders operate off of set
formulas with high upcharges for even the most basic alterations, Pavel
is a true custom shop, and it's apparent that his process involves the
spirit of co-creation with the customer's specific desires and needs in
mind.
The Gibor tested comes out at $5400 list, which puts it right up there
with many other high end boutique builders of exotic custom
basses. I was very impressed by the playability, fit and
finish and stunning good looks of the Gibor. One visit to Pavel's
website reveals that he's no one trick pony though. His Jazz Pro
model was a huge hit at 2009 NAMM, and his creative and inspiring
exotic models offer more than just some flash. They have the
looks and the brains if you know what I mean. If you're in the
market for a custom bass and have the scratch be shopping in the high
end market, I recommend Pavel be on your short list of basses to
audition.
For more info:
www.pavelmi.com
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